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Cold formed carbon steel C sections are often employed as load carrying structural members in heavy commercial trucks. The cold forming operations employed during the making of these members generate certain amount of residual stresses throughout the sections. As the residual stresses play a significant role in determining the structural behavior of truck frame rail members, a careful assessment of residual stresses resulting from cold forming operation is needed. In the present investigation, residual stresses in frame rail corner sections were numerically predicted with the help of non-linear Finite Element (FE) analysis in ABAQUS and compared with the experimentally measured residual stress values using X-ray diffraction technique. It has been observed that the numerically predicted residual stresses are in agreement with the experimentally measured residual stresses in forming direction.

In the recent years, due to rising fuel costs, transportation technologies that provide better fuel economy than conventional vehicle are gaining in popularity with masses. Also, tighter emission norms by various governments have prompted OEMs to look at alternate solutions such as hybrid vehicles. Hybrid vehicles employ an internal combustion engine as well as an alternate energy source to power road vehicles. Various types of hybrid vehicles are available such as mild hybrid, full hybrid, series, parallel and series-parallel hybrids. The level of hybridization (mild or full) and the different powertrain combination (series or parallel) result that on the same route, the engine in a hybrid vehicle operates very different to that of conventional vehicle. The fuel consumed and emissions are also significantly lower in hybrid vehicle. To certify hybrid vehicles, regulators in many countries have modified existing procedures applicable to conventional vehicles.